


in the count of ten

by orphan_account



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Choi Soobin-Centric, Choi Yeonjun Is Bad At Feelings, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Student Council, Tags May Change, Tension, all fluff, all genres mashed into one, basically soobin trying his best to fight his own social anxiety, beomgyu is in the same school year as soobin but he's still an 01 liner, beomgyu is kind of an asshole here i'm sorry, forced jokes, idols as cameos, lia and soobin are twins, minus the romance part, not that funny but i try to make them funny, there may be kissing, they swear a lot, this is based on my student council experience, yeonjun too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:00:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24159265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Soobin despises toxic seniority. And yet Yeonjun, Soobin's senior from the Student Council (also a member of CRA, a higher level of a prestigious and respected organization than the Council), makes sure that his own pride and rank is bragged everywhere he goes. That smug look is so fucking annoying every time he bosses Soobin around for no reason or just whenever he puts so much pressure on the younger one, and Soobin wants nothing else but to kiss that snob off for good.("Or not," said Soobin's closeted gay feelings.)
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	1. Okay

**Friday, March 27th.**

“They’re here.”

To think that Choi Soobin feels like this was such a nerve-wracking moment would be an understatement. His hands turn clammy just as Mrs. Seo, his korean literature teacher, mutters a small _come in_ to the people beyond the homeroom’s door. Great, he’s been waiting for this moment since he was born. Why is he so nervous?

“They’re here,” Soobin lets out a half-whisper shriek. “Lia, they’re here!”

“I know, jeez fuck,” Choi Jisu can feel her heart shattering to pieces after Soobin’s nth time being overly excited for this exact moment. It’s been.. what? A year? A year of her twin thirsting over joining a student council really sounds exhausting. “Just, calm down or else they’ll rule you out.”

Soobin knows best that Jisu lies a lot. From a small conversation about her stupid crush on an imaginary person to herself getting signed albums from her idols. She lies a lot, and she’s been doing the same thing ever since they were born, it makes sense how her lies sound realistic enough. Him being ruled out, though? It _can_ happen, and he hates how painfully realistic her words sounded like, whether or not it’s a sugarcoated lie.

Hushed whispers surround the class, and Soobin can tell how Mrs. Seo must’ve loved the people who are now slowly stepping inside. _The Chosen Ones with the British Navy-style blazers_ , they call it. The woman’s smile widens for the first time that day, specifically shot towards the three Council members and they start to shake hands. Soobin is wrecked, they’re so charming and he can’t help but to admire them from afar. He’s sure everyone’s doing the same thing too, even his twin a.k.a the cocky Lia and the class clown Donghyuck as well.

“Class,” Mrs. Seo clears her throat. “Pause your assignment for a bit, the Council has an announcement to make.”

(Jisu swats her twin’s clammy hand away in disgust, “Soobin, what the fuck?”

He doesn’t realize himself searching for Jisu’s hand under the desk. They’re seatmates after all, which sounds pretty much privileged but Soobin can’t help it. “I’m sorry-”)

The whole class goes silent once Mrs. Seo left them and the Council members alone, a really rare state. The only time class 10 SH 5 went silent was three days ago, the minute their Mandarin teacher told one of the kids to leave the room for being far too noisy. This moment happens again, just with different reasons and different vibes. Though Soobin still feels the same type of agitation and it’s not helping at all, he really wants this to end quick but not at the same time.

“Good morning, everyone,” one of the Council members starts to smile, her posture is straight, arms hugging a good stack of paper on her chest, warm radiation erupts through and Soobin smiles back. He knows her, he remembers her really clearly. “How’s your first week in high school?”

(“Kim Dahyun is such a ray of sunsh-”

“I know, Lia. Shut up.”)

Some people start to answer awkwardly, just hushed ones of them and Soobin is too nervous to even make a full coherent sentence verbally. He looks around, and eventually closes his eyes tight shut once Jisu answers something in a loud volume.

“Tough, unnie. But I’m sure we can manage well in the end.”

_Julia Jisu Choi oh my god why did you do that why did you do that why did you do that-_

“What makes you think it’s tough, Jisu-ssi?” This time, another voice drops in. Soobin is familiar with this female nasal voice, the one who somewhat scolded him for being late on the first orientation day. He doesn’t dare to look up and see if his guess is correct, he’d know sooner or later. “Perhaps if you start to work more than procrastinate, first weeks wouldn’t be tough.”

He can feel the air tenses and the way Jisu’s breath falters. He gulps, not knowing what to say or even help his twin.

But then Soobin starts to break out of his shell and gulps one more time before stating this, “But it is actually tough, sunbaenim.”

Jisu gapes her eyes back at him, as if she’s screaming out _why did you say that?!_ and Soobin cringes. There we go, he can’t pull his words back and everything’s destroyed now, he can’t join the Council-

“Rhetorics, Soobin-ssi,” a male voice, Soobin flinches. “Your twin understood that.”

“Also,” back at the female nasal voice, “we’re not your _sunbaes_. Didn’t we talk about this on your orientation days? We told you to call us hyung, oppa, unnie, noona. It’s the tradition here ever since your parents were only fifteen in this school. If calling the Council members with basic honorifics disgusts you or if you gainsay any of our traditions, the exit door is on your left.”

Soobin is so, so dead. He is dead. He does realize the fact that Jeon Soyeon, the Council’s President, said those statements generally to all of the kids in his class, not just to him. But he can feel the way Soyeon might scratch his name with a pen, blacklisting him from joining anything because of such headassery-

“Understood?”

Everyone starts to let out tough yesses, including Jisu herself. Soobin almost whines but he ends up saying a weak _yes_ from his seat, still looking down on his table. He reminds himself not to call them sunbaenims after this. Perhaps all of the members from the Council have known Soobin, both him and Jisu went _viral_ for being the first pair of twins after a decade in Bighit High so now he really needs to work his ass off not to do nor show anything bad, for the sake of his and Jisu’s image. Great, being popular is great, especially if they know you only for your circumstances or backgrounds but _not_ if you’re in a walk of shame.

“Go ahead and continue, Dahyun unnie,” Soobin notices a glimpse of a warm smile from Soyeon’s lips heading towards Dahyun and _finally_ , the class doesn’t feel too cold now.

“Alright,” the blonde girl clears her throat, “I’m glad you’ve went through your first week no matter how tough it could be. You all did well, trust me. But there are more weeks to come, more years to go. And unfortunately, us three here..”

Dahyun points to herself and her two friends, “Are in our last year. Along with.. how many of us again?”

Chwe Hansol, the one standing in between the two girls, says something that Soobin can’t really make out and Dahyun nods, “Right, twelve people in total from the senior year. And that’s a lot, kids! So this brings to our point of announcement here.”

_This is it, I have to take my chance._

“The Student Council and Class Representatives Assembly member application is now open,” Soobin smiles at the words coming out of Dahyun, “Does anyone want to join? Raise your hand if you do.”

But Soobin needs to wait. He’s a coward, yes, definitely. He’s a follower, he wants someone to do it first then he can try to do it as well. A coward move, he knows that. But the fact that no one is raising their hand right now baffles him to the core. _How am I supposed to do this.._

“Anyone?” Hansol breaks the silence, his feet start to move around the class to look at the juniors, “You’ll learn how to be a good leader, learn how to gather up people’s ideas and mash them up into one giant creative solution. You’ll learn the real definition of teamwork as well. You sure you don’t want to join?”

No one raises their hand, to which Soyeon slowly starts to make eye contact with the students one by one, “All you need to do is raise your hand and we’re gonna hand you out the application paper for you to fill. If you have second thoughts about it, that’s totally fine. You won’t have to send the paper back to us _today_ , you still have more time to think about it.”

Soobin almost yelps the moment he felt a sudden pain on his foot, Jisu’s whispers are also a huge pain in his ears, “Soobin-ah, raise your fucking hand. You’ve been waiting for this your whole life, dumbass.”

“Okay- fine, shut up. I’m waiting.”

Jisu grimaces, “for what?”

And then Soobin notices literal _sparkles_ on Dahyun’s eyes and she’s looking right at him with the smile etched back on her lips again. “Oh!”

_I haven’t even raised my hand yet..?_

“Right, Choi Beomgyu. On with your brother’s footsteps already, huh?” Hansol lets out a chuckle, to which Soyeon joins him in the end.

Oh.

Of course. Of course, of course. Someone behind him must’ve raised their hand, and that’s good. Soobin now can do the same thing and end this day for good.

Wait, Choi Beomgyu?

Like, the one that has been giving him awkwardly intense vibes whenever they try to talk to each other and it’s as if he wants Soobin to lose in everything? And he has a _brother_ here, as a member of the Student Council?

_Fine, Choi. Two can play at this game._

“And.. you as well, Soobin-ssi?” Dahyun slips out one of the unfilled papers and she hands them out to Soobin once he raised his hand, and then to Beomgyu. She then backs away from the rows of seats with her chin slightly tipping up to see if there are others who raised their hands that she might’ve not seen on the way. “Anyone else?”

No movements, no one talks.

“Alright then,” Dahyun stands beside her two friends again, “For those of you joining our organizations, there’s a due date for us to collect these papers. Last day, a week from now. That’s the maximum date, we won’t accept anything longer than that. Although you are sure allowed to give us your papers earlier, but the latest would be Friday after school, we’ll wait for you in front of the Council headquarters until five thirty. Are we clear?”

Both Soobin and Beomgyu straighten up their posture, “Yes, noona.”

(That day ends with Soobin getting hits on his shoulder by his own twin on their way back home.)

“Why do they call themselves with the honorifics as well, though? They’re all born in the same year- ouch! What the fuck, Ji?”

“Just do as they say, milk boy. They only do that in front of their juniors. Hello? Traditions? If both you and Beomgyu end up getting accepted, you’re gonna have to call him _hyung_ in front of your own freshmen, like it or not.”

“But I heard that he’s younger than me..?” _Another hit._ “Ouch, fuck! Fine! Stop hitting me, god.”


	2. Health Check

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jisu accompanied Soobin to the public health center for a checkup ("God, why do they have hard regulations.." "Just do it, Soobin.") And Soobin met someone in the midst of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY!!!!! an update to this fic jdfnjngjd comments and kudos are always appreciated u precious ppl <3

**Saturday, March 28th.**

"Soobin-ah, come on."

"Ji, I don't know.."

Jisu glares, hands grasping tight to her bicycle's handlebars. "Choi Soobin."

Or so to say, Soobin has a big amount of fear towards his twin sister. He was born two minutes earlier, but his throat gulping twice in a row really says otherwise at the fact that Jisu was indeed born to be the leader between themselves. He's not intimidated, no, especially at times like this where she's strolling her pink-themed bike with spongebob stickers all over (it was a prank that Soobin did on their shared birthday two years ago and Jisu was pissed knowing that the stickers are permanent). They're now in front of their own house, with Jisu mumbling on how grateful she is for using shorts underneath her skirt or else the boys who usually hang out in front of Mrs. Joo's gift shop would try catcalling her again, to which Soobin giggles remembering how furious she was back then.

"Yah, what are you laughin' at?"

"Sorry," Soobin holds down his obnoxious smile under his sleeve. "It's just, I heard what you said earlier."

"Doesn't erase the fact that you laughed at my misery," she hisses. "Hop on, Bin-ah. It's almost six."

"In the morning?"

"In.. ches deep in your ass," Soobin cracks a laugh out loud at her joke. "Seriously, Soobin. Hurry the fuck up."

And so Soobin hops on the bike's carrier right behind Jisu, and she rides away as fast as she could before other people could wake up and open their windows, seeing two teenagers riding on one pink-themed Spongebob bike.

They arrive at Yongsan Health Center shortly after five minutes riding like crazy, and Soobin wants the earth to swallow him whole. Maybe this is why he wasn't cut out to be a Student Council member, he's already-

"Soobin, snap out of it!" Jisu whisper-shouts for the third time that day, the dimmed sound of every kind of people talking right around him makes everything just feels immensely awful. "You want this, don't you?"

Oh, he does. He just despises how everything started at first. A boy and a girl arriving with a cute bicycle and parking it near the other cars, he can't swallow his own confidence tightly in his heart. It's going bad, he hates it. People are giving looks at him and his sister and he just wants to get out of this weird place right now. So many people, too many sick people. It's crowded, he wants to go home now. It's only morning, and Soobin is beyond confused seeing so many humans in one place and the sun's not even fully out yet.

"Soobin," maybe this time, Jisu can feel her brother's clammy hands and she casts a soft smile at him. "I know mom would usually give up and take you home, but I'm sure she'd think this is the time for you to get out of your comfort zone. Do you still wanna do this?"

He doesn't know if he can answer, mostly because of the thought of his mother giving him a warm hug and saying, _you can do this, baby._

Fuck, he can't cry in public like this..

"You can just sit down, Bin-ah. I'll help you with the registrations, yeah? How's that sound?"

Soobin nods, thankful that he has Jisu on his side. The day goes bright, and he forces a smile out as he looks away to the windows. "Yeah, sun's good."

The younger out of the two cackles and she gently shoves Soobin to the nearest empty chair, "stay here."

 _Stay, where?_ He thinks. But who would've thought she's gonna leave him in a split second? He almost screams out her name, begging her to stay here for a bit and tell him to calm down but he can't. He's all alone now, surrounded with elderly people queuing for their last checkups and talking so loud to each other and his eyes scramble all over, searching for a black-haired short girl in the middle of the busy crowd, no one. He found no one that looks like Jisu. No Lia. She's gone.

_She's gone, oh my god.. Oh my god, where.._

Soobin doesn't realize that he's already standing up from his own seat and he's too deep inside his headspace to notice how his shoulders bump on someone else's, not knowing that he received a death glare from the other person. "Watch where you're going."

"Oh," Soobin gasps and looks around too quick he almost trips on his own five year old Converse shoes. "I'm sorry-"

"Moron's probably wonderin' where his twin went," the person spits under his breath, accent concentrates to a Daegu mannerism (or Busan, Soobin can't tell). "I saw her standing right near the registration table. Now sit your ass down or help her out if you want to be useful in the Council later, Soobin-ssi. You can't even do things on your own."

Soobin knows who this boy is, he really does. And he's not surprised seeing him in this same, public place. It's just that Soobin's too much of a coward to fight back, or maybe just create a small argument to not let his own dignity stepped so hard like this and yet his tongue suddenly doesn't have any muscles to move an inch, to let out a letter. Except for one name. "Beomg-"

"Save it," Beomgyu's eyes roll, and he starts to walk away. Soobin tries his best to pretend that maybe, _maybe,_ Beomgyu is also confused on why he's acting this petty to a new classmate like Soobin. "It's not like you're gonna get accepted by the Council either."

In the middle of the busy crowd, the dimpled boy can't pretend how his heart drops so loud to the ground.

  
"Your heart rate's all normal and your eyesight," Dr. Kim mumbles the next few words from the clipboard slowly and Soobin can't tell the differences. Jisu, who's now sitting right beside him, probably is facing the same thing as well since they both major in social sciences. Maybe for now, they want the exact same thing: to leave straight ahead the moment Soobin gets the health check papers. "Eyesight's actually good, too. You eat carrots everyday, Soobin-ssi?"

The younger boy cringes, but he smiles. "No."

The doctor, whose name Soobin catches is Kim Taehyung, lets out a laugh alongside his own smile that resembles a box. "M'kay, do you mind telling me the reason why you wanted to do basic health checkups?"

Soobin hates the fact that everytime a question is out, he looks straight to Jisu. And he knows Jisu would stay silent, but this time, she has this certain encouraging smile to which it made Soobin answer automatically. "It's, um, council. In my school."

"Sorry?"

Jisu quickly saves the day, "He's planning to join the student council in his school, doc. Getting a health checkup is, you know, one of their regulations if he wants to get accepted."

"Ah," Dr. Kim writes a few more things on the clipboard. "Like the boy earlier, right? What was it.. Choi Beom, Joo? Choi Beomjoo? Or Beomgyu, maybe. Does he go to the same school as you?"

Jisu's about to answer a simple yes but Soobin's already slouching in his seat and he shakes his head. "No, I don't know him," and he doesn't want to, ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PATIENCE,, YEONBINISTS!! yeonjun will come up real soon <3333


	3. English Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soobin's first day with his chosen extracurricular activity after school. (Things are just getting a little too frustrating).

**Tuesday, March 31st.**

"Oh," Jisu stammers. "You're not going back home with me."

Soobin winces, he just wants to go home once and for all. The sunlight through the windows is particularly warm, shining through his doubts and screaming at him for being a total coward. It's 3 in the afternoon, the time where free people can actually go back home from school but guess what? He can't. Today's his first meeting with the English Club, yes, a club that he randomly picked because apparently all 10th graders are obliged to choose at least one after-school activity. He regrets it, so much. And Jisu being a proud Debate Club member she is, actually had her first day on Monday, which was a day ago. She can go home now! And Soobin can't? What a nuisance. The only bad thing about Jisu's club schedule is that it consists of Mondays and Fridays, and Soobin remembers mocking her so much about it at home (Jisu almost scratched his face in the end) because imagining not having a free afternoon time on school days, two times a week, is a scary thought. (Not that they're exactly free, just- free from that _darn_ school building).

"But I want to," Soobin's face turns sour, and everyone who passed them (to walk back home, Soobin might want to add) gives him a certain look. Jisu nudges Soobin's arm to move away from the front of the class. "I can visit the second meeting, a week from now- I swear, Ji."

"No, you stay here and join the club or else I'll tell Soyeon unnie to get you off the grid."

Soobin freezes, eyes wide. "What's- th- this doesn't have anything to do with the Council!"

"Yes, it does, dummy," the younger one between the two starts to set the yellow Kanken bag ( _or was it Kraken something..?_ Soobin asks himself) properly on the side of her shoulder, walking to the hallways. "Come on, I'll walk you."

"Oh," Soobin can feel the holy excitement splashing him like cold water in the middle of a desert, and he wishes he could kiss his twin's cheek so bad but he knows too well that they're not kids anymore, and that Jisu might scratch his face again. "Oh god, Julia, you are my hero-"

"Bin," she glares. "To your club's meeting. Where's it located? What class?"

Soobin's shoulders slump more under the weight of his backpack's straps, and he sighs. _Today's kind of a bad day_. "Fine. 11 ST 7, near the lab."

"First floor?"

"Yeah," he rolls his eyes.

Soobin ends up getting a painful flick on his forehead.

("No one is allowed to roll their eyes at me." "Fine, god, you control freaks are so- ow! Alright! At least don't- not my forehead, you witch!")

"Oh," Soobin gulps, eyes looking nowhere. He then forces out a nervous smile, "Hello. I'm sorry I was, late."

The whole class goes awful quiet, definitely not a situation that Soobin ever want to experience but here we are. The class, 11 ST 7, which is right across the school's cafeteria and only a few meters away from the main science lab, is known to be very rowdy. Perhaps the only Science and Technology-majored class whose noisiness might just overshine everyone (he thought his own class is already noisy at best..? Boy, he thought wrong). A classmate once told Soobin there's a myth going on around that every person who walks into that class will always have the urge to talk, blabber random shit, continuingly making the class turn into a concert. _Myth? What myth?_ Soobin wants to laugh. It's suddenly a hoax now that he enters the room, not being able to talk, and that everyone in the room goes painfully silent. Just, silent. White noise from the air conditioner and Soobin's own breaths.

"I'm sorry," he mumbles, cringing. "Is this the right class for the uh, English Club?"

The people there look at each other and Soobin feels like crying now that he heard an awkward cough from inside the class. _What, are you guys saying that I should speak in English just to get in?_

Soobin can feel sweat trickling down his back, and so he closes his eyes for a few seconds to remember the words Jisu used to randomly teach him in English. " _I'm sorry for late._ "

Soobin wants to cry from the amount of stiff tongue muscles whenever he speaks this specific goddamn language, " _For being late._ "

"Come on in, Soobin-ssi."

The said boy looks up, and knows that the voice belongs to Chwe Hansol, one of the senior Council members that he met days ago, and the fact that he's also the president of the club, only makes things feel like Soobin wants to greet death like an old friend. "It's alright, no need to speak in English for now. We just started two minutes ago."

With a gulp decorating his throat, Soobin enters the class carefully muttering a soft _thank you_ , closing the door as silent as he can. The class starts to get noisy each second back again, which is the only thing Soobin is grateful for. He bows to the club seniors (especially Hansol, yes, especially this _special_ guy) and sophomores standing right in front of the whiteboard, and the few freshmen 10th graders (who looked a bit too energetic for this whole thing) sitting on the front seats. And without further ado, he's finally plopping down to some random empty seat _aaaaall_ the way back. Yes, all the way back, because there are apparently 30 freshman students wanting to join this, damned, club.

 _No attention, the better_ , he smiles to himself.

"You," someone from the front of the class shouts, and the class dims silent back again. "Who told you to sit down?"

_Oh, my god._

Soobin's eyes rake to the front, not knowing where or who to look. That voice definitely isn't Hansol's so now he's forced to play games with himself, deciding on who just called him out like that. With this, it reminds him of that one horror mystery game he used to play from his phone where he has the role of a detective, choosing on who might be the murderer between the eight-membered family, and boy, the most suspicious-looking ones are always innocent (a.k.a Soobin's theory). It was one of the hardest mobile games he had ever played (because of never getting the chance to complete it), and now he's slightly experiencing the same thing.

Except this time, everything's happening in a different dimension. A real one. And he would do anything to switch lives with that lucky detective, getting to solve a murder case instead of being forced to pick who to reply between the seniors (or sophomores) who called him out out of nowhere.

"I'm," he quickly stands up, deciding to look up to one of the most eye-catching one standing in front of the class (yes, that red-haired guy and Soobin hopes he's not wrong), the chair excruciatingly shrieks in the middle of the white noise. "Sorry, I'm sorry, sunbaenim."

"No, seriously," the guy talks again. Soobin eyes a bit, it's not the same person that he thought it would be. Turns out to be yellow-haired. (Now he remembers why he didn't complete the detective game). "Who told you to sit down?"

"Enough, Daniel," Hansol croaks out, sighing. "He can sit down."

"But you didn't tell him to."

The silence after that, murders Soobin's whole soul. And he swears that maybe, this Daniel guy also regrets everything that he just said, because he could hear low whispers coming from Hansol towards other seniors. Something around _give me a minute_ , and when Soobin looks up, some other girl senior nodded her head frantically, to which it seems like Hansol's about to leave the class.

" _Everyone_ ," Hansol says in English. " _I'll let you guys have fun with Kyulkyung, our vice president. She's gonna take the lead for now._ "

"Oh and," Hansol turns around to find someone from the seats, and he smiles warmly. _Of course, that someone has to be me of all people, huh?_ "Soobin-ssi, it's okay. You can sit down, don't worry."

He bows, smiling back. "Thank you, Hansol hyung."

 _Okay, that was weird_ , Soobin thinks to himself. But he can feel a huge weight has been lifted away from his shoulders knowing that he's gonna leave (and that his ass can finally rest on this sweet seat), apparently because Soobin respects Hansol with his whole heart and that means: more time to force himself to be good. Now's a great moment to be relaxed.

But what makes things feel even more weird is that all of the club members could clearly hear Hansol saying a few stern words to the Daniel guy with a, "Come with me."

That.. should be a good thing, right? No more mean people near Soobin?

  
"Okay, now raise your hand if you want to join the Spelling Bee unit!"

Kyulkyung's cheery voice does soothe down Soobin's stiff feeling from the situation before, and he smiles, thinking that this unit might be the only one that could accept him for good. English Debate, Newscasting, Storytelling (God no, especially not this one), all are too uptight for him. He can't even talk without sweating profusely to foreigners, let alone debating in English, or acting, or just- reading in general. Though he's fairly good at remembering how words are structured, mainly Korean ones, but he swears he could spell the name 'Schneider' all by himself without searching it on the web.

That's good enough, Soobin then raises his hand.

"Alright, one, two.." Kyulkyung continues counting to herself. "Twelve! That's more than enough, you guys are a bunch of hardcore ones, huh? When I was around your grade, I had like- only five people joining this unit. This is amazing.."

"Excuse me, Kyulkyung-nim," someone from the edge of the room raises their hand. "Why only five?"

"Oh!" Soobin internally coos at the way she giggles. " _Long story, my guy._ Lots of people thought there's gonna be an actual English teacher guiding us here, nope, that's not how it works. Seniors here, the so-called 12th graders, are your teachers for now. They're the ones guiding you. Along with the sophomores too, of course! And this system has been going on for.. I don't know, around 20 years? 20 years of non-formal and formal clubs or organizations without teachers barging in to help us. And that's how you grow independently, kids. You'll get used to it once you're on an actual workfield. You guys don't need your own English teacher when you're interviewing western artists for your job, do you? And this, perhaps not all people agree with this system. Bummer, I know."

_Ah, that makes sense._

Except that it suddenly doesn't make sense anymore, because he can feel something bubbling in the lower parts of his stomach and it's distracting him so much.

" _Scuse me!"_ Soobin stands up too quick, he almost trips. " _Scuse me, may I, toilet? Please?_ "

" _Make it quick,_ " one of the seniors replies in English back. " _Ghosts haunt the toilets here only on afternoons._ "

"Ugh, don't listen to him," Kyulkyung sighs. "Go ahead, hoobae."

Soobin doesn't exactly know what the other guy was saying but he did hear the word 'ghosts.' _God, what other myths do we have in this school?_

After a quick second saying _thank you_ and somewhat sprinting outside the class, Soobin can feel the slight crisp air and the silent noise surrounding the whole school building. The cafeteria's empty, all stalls are closed and the ambience are fully dark now, the sunlight slowly turns into an orange hue. He can only see the janitor sweeping the cafeteria's floor a good ten meters away from him. No other student was around.

Great, he needs to make this quick before he dies pissing himself.

"Where," Soobin runs, following the memory he had. "Where's that goddamn, toilet.."

He runs through the corridor by the cafeteria and sighs in relief after noticing the toilet sign showing itself prettily, as if it's waiting for Soobin this whole time.

"..der."

Soobin stops walking, hearing the familiar hushed voice from one of the classrooms he passed.

"Louder, Daniel."

_Hansol hyung..?_

"Louder!"

"One!" Soobin knows that cranky voice so well. He quietly peeks through one of the classroom's windows, only to see Hansol, standing oh-so-confidently, and the-

the Daniel guy on a pushup position? _On the floor?_

"Okay, good. Hold that position," Hansol states out coldly. "You remember what I said earlier?"

"Yes, hyung," Soobin swears he could hear Daniel shaking. "I promise I will keep anything that is related to the Council stays in the Council."

"What else?"

"I promise I will," Daniel stops.

"Will what, Choi?"

"I will," Daniel breathes out a groan, seemingly exhausted from holding the pushup that long, and Soobin can feel his own heart beating fast for the first time that day. "Will not act like a jerk to any of the freshman students."

"Last one?"

"I pr- promise I will not humiliate the Council at my utmost." _Right,_ Soobin facepalms quietly. It hits him now that Daniel is a member of the Student Council, which is also Soobin's senior. Sophomore, maybe. Amazing. He's gonna have to meet people like Daniel in these kinds of organizations, just great.

"Okay," Hansol mumbles, too quiet. "Two."

Soobin's non-existent tears start to clump on his own eyes. It hits him more at the fact that later, if he get accepted in the Council, he's probably gonna do pushups like this poor yellow guy too.

"Two," Daniel repeats, doing another pushup that made Soobin's muscles feel less tense, but still tense enough because come on, we're talking about pushups here.

"I didn't tell you to quiet down, Choi. Two."

"Two!"

"Three."

Soobin is so gonna pass out seeing this. "Three!"

"Stand up," Soobin watches in amazement now that Daniel is standing up, posture looking so similar to how soldiers stand up and now things just feel a lot more nauseating. And the fact that Daniel's a lot more taller than Hansol just, feels so odd to Soobin. "You know why I'm doing this to you, right?"

"Yes, hyung."

"Then I sure am expecting no bad gossips behind my back. If you dislike me because of what happened today, say it. There's no point of talking trash behind me," Hansol half-sits on one of the desks, hands loosely gripping the edges. "You're chosen to be in one of the most important positions from the CRA, not all people can pass that. I don't want you to waste your pride like this. You're only a sophomore, a year younger than me, but you're already acting like Soyeon, Daniel-ssi. Soyeon's a different case now, isn't she? She's your Council's President. She's the president here. It makes sense if she orders and bosses people around, but Soyeon knows well that if she's outside the Council, putting down her president badge would be the best thing to do. If a teacher asks her to help them bring their books, she does it eventually, not putting on shit like, 'hey i'm the president here.' No. Know your place. You're in an extracurricular club, school's over, you're only obliged to guide the kids like how other English teachers would do. You were practically scaring the kid away, Choi. He didn't do anything wrong."

 _Shit_ _,_ Soobin forces closing his eyes. _Don't talk about me don't talk about me don't talk about me-_

"Yes, Hansol hyung. Thank you for your words."

Soobin grimaces, the amount of formal words sticking around this dark classroom is legitimately giving him goosebumps.

"Okay," Hansol clears his throat. "I'm giving you back your own right to be at ease then walk back to class, starting now."

_Wait, now?_

Daniel mutters a small _thank you, hyung_ once again, and Soobin's eyes widen at how the the neon-haired one walks so fast towards the door, and now he's outside.

 _Foreshadow,_ Soobin cries in his mind. He knows he's going to die pissing himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello, jaembinn here! i've been busy for a college entrance exam (it's actually due 8/9 months from now, i'm just training my dead braincells long before i might fail anything), so please bear with me!! though i will try my best to update as soon as i can and even finish it ("it," as in this fic and another one that i'm planning to post only) months before the exam, just so that i won't be distracted and you won't be waiting too long either. i hope you enjoy reading this~!


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